A friend from college got a job as an ER nurse in a not so nice city I grew up by…
She didn’t really explain to anyone who knew the area where she worked, and she didn’t tell co-workers she wasn’t familiar enough with the area. But like, she was an ER nurse, she knew people were getting shot constantly. But she wanted to seem cool and like she could handle herself.
So like a month in of 3rd shift she’s sitting at a red light a few blocks away from the hospital and a sketch all black tinted car flashes their high beams at after pulling up behind.
She doesn’t know what to do, so she just sits there in here car.
Luckily it was a cop who then turned his lights on. He assumed the only reason a car would stop at a red light was because the driver fell asleep drunk, and rather than the cop wanting to stop and get out of his vehicle, he was trying to wake a drunk driver up so they’d leave…
TLDR
He told her to never stop at a red light around there. Slow down, look, and then run the red light.
I’ve heard of that in Detroit. My jujitsu instructor told a story of driving through there somewhere and he stopped at a red light. A police officer pulled him over and explained that he would get robbed if he stopped at lights, and that everyone would know he was clueless and from out of town.
Detroit is exactly what came to mind for me as well. Years ago I was driving back from downtown to Ann Arbor and the interchange I needed was closed so I had to exit in the middle of downtown Detroit. It was pre smartphone days and I was lost at night by myself. I stopped at a red and an unhoused person walked into the middle of the road and threw a coke bottle at my car. Luckily it was plastic.
I was terrified that he was going to come closer and attack my car and me. Luckily that’s all he did. When I got back, everyone asked me why I stopped at the light and I said it was red. They told me never to stop at a red in Detroit. Wild city.
Edit: spelling
Ever seen the movie Black Hawk Down? There’s a scene where a convoy of hummvees takes heavy fire while trying to get out of Mogadishu.
Detroit is like Mogadishu. You don’t stop for anything and try not to engage the locals as much as possible.
I lived in Cleveland for a few years, never heard of/seen anything like that there. Some sketchy neighborhoods, yeah, but so bad police advise you not to stop at red lights? nah.
I mean, Ohio cops are the worst, so even if it was the safe thing to do, they’d pull your ass over for running the light, and then leave as a crowd gathered around your car lol
